14.
But I say all this now, and select all the histories that contain trials and tribulations, and the wrath of kings, and their evil designs, in order that we may fear nothing, save only offending God. For then also was there a furnace burning; yet they derided it, but feared sin. For they knew that if they were consumed in the fire, they should suffer nothing that was to be dreaded; but that if they were guilty of impiety, they should undergo the extremes of misery. It is the greatest punishment to commit sin, though we may remain unpunished; as on the other hand, it is the greatest honour and repose to live virtuously, though we may be punished. For sins separate us from God; as He Himself speaks; "Have not your sins separated between you and Me?" 1 But punishments lead us back to God. As one saith, "Give peace; for Thou hast recompensed us for all things." 2 Suppose any one hath a wound; which is the most deserving of fear, gangrene, or the surgeon's knife? the steel, or the devouring progress of the ulcer? Sin is a gangrene, punishment is the surgeon's knife. As then, he who hath a gangrene, although he is not lanced, hath to sustain the malady, and is then in the worse condition, when he is not lanced; so also the sinner, though he be not punished, is the most wretched of men; and is then especially wretched, when he hath no punishment, and is suffering no distress. And as those who have a disease of the spleen, or a dropsy, when they enjoy a plentiful table, and cool drinks, and a variety of delicacies, and condiments, are then especially in a most pitiable state, increasing as they do their disease by luxury; but should they rigorously subject themselves to hunger and thirst, according to medical laws, they might have some hope of recovery; so also those who live in iniquity, if they are punished, may have favourable hopes; but if, together with their wickedness, they enjoy security and luxury, they become more wretched than those who cram their bellies, though they are in a state of dropsy; and so much the more, as the soul is better than the body. If then thou seest any who are in the same sins, and some of them struggling continually with hunger, and a thousand ills; while others are drinking their fill, and living sumptuously, and gormandizing; think those the better off, who endure sufferings. For not only is the flame of voluptuousness cut off by these misfortunes, but they also depart to the future Judgment, and that dread tribunal, 3 with no small relief; and go hence, having discharged here the penalty of the greater part of their sins by the ills they have suffered.
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Isa. lix. 2 ↩
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Isaiah xxvi. 12, LXX., the Eng. V. is, "Thou hast wrought all our works in us." Compare, however, Isa. i. 5, xl. 2, liv. 8; Dan. ix. 12, 16; Lev. xxvi. 34; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. ↩
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It was the common opinion of the Greek Fathers, that the fire of the day of judgment would cause severe suffering to some of those who would be finally saved, and that this might be mitigated by a severe repentance, and in some degree by suffering here, and by the prayers of others. St. Chrys. on Phil. i. 24; Hom. III. Mor. Orig. on Ps. xxxvi. (al. xxxvii.) v. 8; Ben. ii. 661, D.; St. Cyr. Catech. xv. (9); Greg. Nyss. Or. de Mort. ed. 1638, t. iii. 634, d. speaks of a cleansing fire. But in Or. de fun. Pulcheriae, p. 460, he says, "Such a soul, having nothing for which to be judged, fears not Hell, dreads not Judgment. It abides free from fear and astonishment, no evil conscience causing a fear of Judgment." However, St. Chrys. on 1 Cor. iii. 15, Hom. IX. explains the being saved as by fire of remaining undestroyed in eternal torment. This last exposition is attributed to "the Greeks" by Bellarmine, de Purg. lib. i. c. 5, having been defended by them in the discussion on Purgatory preliminary to the Council of Florence. Labbe, t. xiii. p. 26-30. It is also held by Photius, OEcum. ad loc. Theodoret, on 1 Cor. iii., takes the passage in general to refer to teachers and their work as such, but explains the words cited of a fiery trial of the teacher's own life. Euseb. (quoted as Emisen. really a Gall. Bp. of later date), Bibl. Pat. Col. iii. 549, speaks of rivers of fire (see p. 126); Hom. III. de Epiph., OEcumenius on 1 Cor. iii. (doubtfully). Also the Commentary on Isaiah, attributed to St. Basil, on c. ix. 19; Ben. t. i. p. 554 (cited as his by Photius), speak of a cleansing by the Judgment fire. Origen, on Ps. xxxvi. (37) 14, Hom. III. 1, says, "And, as I think, we must all come to that fire. Though one be Paul or Peter, yet he comes to that fire." So St. Ambr. on verse 15, sec. 26, of Ezekiel and Daniel, and St. Hil. on Ps. cxviii. (119) 20, of the Blessed Virgin herself, so applying Luc. ii. 35. See Cat. Aur. on St. Matt. iii. 11, 12, Tr. p. 104, note e. St. Greg. Naz. Or. xxxix. c. 19, speaks of Novatians, as "perhaps to be baptized in the fire of the other world, in that last Baptism, which is longer and more painful." There is no minutely defined and universal doctrine on the subject. See on Fleury, b. 19, c. 31. ↩
